Hello from far north

[Feckless]

Keep writing Morty...

I have the feeling the MRM is gaining more members everywhere on the world. I made the same observations in Germany. And as I said often before, the law chances that are going to happen in Switzerland are a step in the right direction (custody for both (even for unmarried men), punishing women for withholding kids)

[yohan]

.....That was brief overview about situation in Finland. It is not as bad like in U.S, but it is changing rapidly as feminism gains more power. Fortunately men’s rights activism is also rising...

Welcome and thanks for your information, situation seems to be similar to my native country, Austria EU.

Yes, there is a significant difference between US/UK and EU. It's feminism, but in the EU, compared especially to USA, it is less hateful against men.

But, still, it's feminism. It's a pain for all of us.

[shaazam]

Hi Zuberi, TERA, Feckless, Shaazam and Rohara!



Yes it would. In Sweden they actually made proposal like that in the parliament. Swedes have political feminist party named FI - Feminist Intiative, and if I'm right it was even in the cabinet on that period. Fortunatelly things aren't gone that far in here. But yes. It would be devastating if it would happen.



Well, I can't say that I have never thought about leaving the country. Sometimes when I´m really frustrated I do, but not for real. There are so many things about this country that I like, and I really don´t want to give it up, and let them to drive me off. Rather I want to get equality to be restored in this country.

Besides we also have some progress. Feminism is now more powerfull than ever, but men´s movement is rising. Just two years ago, nobody wanted to hear about men's rights, but now men have become much more aware of the rights they should have, and aren´t anymore afraid to speak it out. It is few who really has the courage to speak out in public, but change is visible on the blogs and on the discussion boards. 2 - 3 years ago men only told these things to their best mates in saunas, after couple of beers.

About a year a go was published the book Mies vailla tasa-arvoa (Man without equality). That was first major step. Since that has happened a lot. Just this february one man handed his doctoral thesis, which was titled Discrimination Against Men: Appearance and Causes in the Context of a Modern Welfare State, and another guy's thesis on quite similar agenda is under way. The week when that thesis was handed was my best newsweek ever. You know, before that men´s discrimation and equality issues were something that doesn't officially exist. Then on that week you can hear: "new study reveals that 9/10 of men in Finland suffer discrimination because of his gender at some stage of lifetime" on the state channels. That was avesome moment!

I believe system can be changed for more man-friendly state. More and more people are starting to question, why there aren't single male on the Ombudsman's office. Many women have also begun to marvel that same thing. Actually in today's magazine, the spokeswoman of the Ombudsman for equality, did have to make up an explanationfor that question. Pressure is starting to work, because the ones who have the hegemonic place in power, never explains or negotiate anything if not have to.

Sorry, again so terrible long post, and nothing but chewing how things are in my country. I try to skip the track from now on.

thnx for your reply the feminits have considerable power in Australia right across the board but not to the Finnish extent

you write English quite well I think you would do well in Australia the winters here only drop to about 16C in winter

[rohara]

you can write as long a post as you want

[Morty]

Thanks guys!

in Australia the winters here only drop to about 16C in winter

Well that is a clear advantage .

[rohara]

Hi Zuberi, TERA, Feckless, Shaazam and Rohara!



Yes it would. In Sweden they actually made proposal like that in the parliament. Swedes have political feminist party named FI - Feminist Intiative, and if I'm right it was even in the cabinet on that period. Fortunatelly things aren't gone that far in here. But yes. It would be devastating if it would happen.



Well, I can't say that I have never thought about leaving the country. Sometimes when I´m really frustrated I do, but not for real. There are so many things about this country that I like, and I really don´t want to give it up, and let them to drive me off. Rather I want to get equality to be restored in this country.

Besides we also have some progress. Feminism is now more powerfull than ever, but men´s movement is rising. Just two years ago, nobody wanted to hear about men's rights, but now men have become much more aware of the rights they should have, and aren´t anymore afraid to speak it out. It is few who really has the courage to speak out in public, but change is visible on the blogs and on the discussion boards. 2 - 3 years ago men only told these things to their best mates in saunas, after couple of beers.

About a year a go was published the book Mies vailla tasa-arvoa (Man without equality). That was first major step. Since that has happened a lot. Just this february one man handed his doctoral thesis, which was titled Discrimination Against Men: Appearance and Causes in the Context of a Modern Welfare State, and another guy's thesis on quite similar agenda is under way. The week when that thesis was handed was my best newsweek ever. You know, before that men´s discrimation and equality issues were something that doesn't officially exist. Then on that week you can hear: "new study reveals that 9/10 of men in Finland suffer discrimination because of his gender at some stage of lifetime" on the state channels. That was avesome moment!

I believe system can be changed for more man-friendly state. More and more people are starting to question, why there aren't single male on the Ombudsman's office. Many women have also begun to marvel that same thing. Actually in today's magazine, the spokeswoman of the Ombudsman for equality, did have to make up an explanationfor that question. Pressure is starting to work, because the ones who have the hegemonic place in power, never explains or negotiate anything if not have to.

Sorry, again so terrible long post, and nothing but chewing how things are in my country. I try to skip the track from now on.

Morty,

Sounds like there is some real progress in Finland! I wish I could say that people could engage in such a dialogue here. We seem to have a problem doing that. As a for instance: Not long ago the Washington post (a very liberal and influential newspaper here in the U.S.), after reviewing a study that stated that roughly a quarter of all reported rapes were actually false claims, decided to do its own study on the local police departments in order to discredit the findings. When they went out and interviewed local police departments they found that the consensus was that up to 40% of all rape claims were false! They decided to do a piece on it but before it went to press they started to receive numerous bomb threats so they decided not to publish it. That’s pretty pathetic.
The false rape thing is huge in this country and it is insane how many people's lives have been ruined by falsely filed reports of rape. Is it bad in Finland too?

[brian44]

Hi! I am Morty, middle aged guy from Tampere, Finland. First I want to apologize all the typo’s I make. Writing in english isn't my best skill.

Good to see you here Morty, your English is so much better than my Finnish!

Hope you become a regular contributer.

[Morty]

Thanks Brian44 and Rohara!

The false rape thing is huge in this country and it is insane how many people's lives have been ruined by falsely filed reports of rape. Is it bad in Finland too?

The False rape accusations do happen here occasionally, but it´s much smaller problem here than in U.S, although the number of false accusations are crowing. Currently it is not very likely to be sentenced, if charged falsely. Sentences are also quite small here. Typical penalty for rape is 2 years in prison. For a first timer with no criminal record and under mitigating circumstances, the sentence could be low as two years in parole. Also there are no public access database of sex offenders, so basicly it is possible to start a new life after the sentence.

But things are changing, and we are heading for the worse direction. Feminist's and so called human rights activists are constantly putting pressure to change the jurisdiction. National Rape Crisis Center and local department of the Amnesty International are the biggest lobbies. The Rape Crisis Center is run by very radical feminist's, and the Amnesty's Finnish section is nothing but a feminist organization disguised as human rights organization. Actually one of the main executives in the Rape Crisis Center is also the leading expert of women issues in the Amnesty Finland. She has among other things demanded law changes, so that in rape trial the accused (man) would have to be able to prove that she consented to have sex, which of course nobody could ever prove. And police should allways "believe the woman", and never doubt is she raped or not.

So the Rape Crisis Center produce figures about sexual violence for women, and then the figures are presented to media and decision-makers as facts, with Amnesty International mandate. It is very effective because Amnesty International has so much influence, and any politician dares not to question it. Some of those figures doesn´t base on anything, but very few dare to question them in public. One female police detective, Marja Vuento did. She said that "the figures are pulled from a hat, and she even know from who's hat". She is a brave woman, and she had to take lot of hate speech for that.

[Celtic Druid]

Actually one of the main executives in the Rape Crisis Center is also the leading expert of women issues in the Amnesty Finland. She has among other things demanded law changes, so that in rape trial the accused (man) would have to be able to prove that she consented to have sex, which of course nobody could ever prove.

This is the terrifying prospect for men which is actually taking shape in various western countries. The change of onus on the state to prove guilt, to the accused (men) proving their innocence. In no other crime does this exist, apart from rape.

And police should allways "believe the woman", and never doubt is she raped or not.

This is a similar absurdity to people claiming children never lie and must be believed. It also wreaks of undemocratic arrogance that a whole group of people (women) should be universally believed without question. Absolute madness!!

[Morty]

Greater problem than the false rape accusations so far has been the false incest accusations. In the 90's we had real paedophile hysteria going on, like in many other european countries. Weird thing is, that hysteria started just after the law about the parental custody was changed. New law brought option of joint custody. After that the paedophile allegations for father increased rapidly. Usual case was that couple first divorces and the father applies the joint custody and wins the case. Short after that the mother takes the children and moves to the safe house, and the father finds out, that he is accused of domestic violence and sexual abuse of his own child.

In most cases the court found father innocent, but his reputation was ruined, and still he wasn´t allowed to see his children. In this country the social service can hold fathers acces to his children for allmost endlessly. Court order can give him the right, but social service has power to delay the execution as long as they "believe it is necessarry for safe of the child". Even for years.

In the 90's there was couple of safe house personel, who encouraged mothers to make an false accusation of incest, and manipulated the children to tell the police that they are abused. One of them finally sentenced for prison, after many incidents. She had produced fake evidence of incest. Fortunatelly things are little better now, and social workers are instructed, that if incest accusation appears just in middle of custody battle, the accusation is propably a false.